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So you believe "slapping around" the ones you don't like is a good use of this forum? As mentioned, some of the "favorites" left on their own, one is not training dogs anymore, and some were just plain nasty. As you said, it's the Internet. Take what you can from it and move on. If the only comments appreciated are from a certain group the discussion will get pretty boring. Bon Voyage.

Carol, I don't know you, but I know you've been around for a good long while, and your comments demonstrate kindness and self-deprecation that perhaps don't work to your benefit and that some others could maybe consider sometimes. You are ballast to a top-heavy ship with lots of (hot) wind (air) in its sails.

I hope that sometimes you use the PM feature to deliver a pithy two-word message. I don't know if it would make you feel any better--but it makes me feel better to imagine it!!!

RTF will weather this storm, lull, whatever. There are too many good people (still) here, and the good ones who are gone are contributing in some other way in a medium more suited to them. It's all good.

what's that phrase or saying someone posted a few years ago? goes something like, In the beginning you know nothing and try to learn everything then, (at the most annoying stage) you think you know everything and share all of your knowledge. As you keep on going you finally realize you know almost nothing. By the time you know something worth sharing your probably due to retire....

I think too many folks who post a lot anymore are in that (think you know everything) stage. The slap-downs were common not because of any dislike for a person but, to help them move forward. Slap downs often move the person on to the correct (realize you know nothing) stage.

I would add one more category - those who have known so much for so long that they have forgotten what it was like to know you didn't know, while desperately wanting to know. Not knowing something doesn't make you stupid, it just makes you a beginner. Training your first dog is a lot like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together without the picture; it's hard when you really don't know what it is supposed to look like when you are through.

I fully expect to get told I am wrong every time I post something on here (it certainly happens a lot when I am training) and that's the way I learn and get forced to think about alternate approaches. But the ones I really appreciate are those folks - and I have at least three - who can tell me I am being a dumba$$ about something without calling me one. That difference is significant, at least to me, and I suspect to several others on this forum.

Participation is a privilege, not a right.
The banished were sent off for their refusal to honor the privilege.
The janitor offered the banished multiple opportunities to change their behavior.
They did not, and they suffered the consequences.

There was a poll on this issue and the members of RTF voted by a margin of over 2 to 1 in favor of not having the banished return.
However, it seems that some are unwilling to accept by the decision of the janitor and the desires of the majority.

Im a newbie and don't know any of the people that have been banned.
I wonder how many people left because of the banned rips and comments.
I just wonder how much they could have been a benefit to RTF, we'll never know.
CONSTRUCTIONAL CRITICISM is welcome.
Personal attacks and plain nastiness should not be allowed

I agree ,people aren't dogs but we learn the same way....I was a safety leader for several years and the one thing that still sticks in my mind from all the training I got was , what it takes for people to make a change in their behavior...It went like this " it takes a significant emotional event to cause that change to occur"..As gundog stated a firm correction will some times shock people into reality and cause a change ...nagging doesn't work on people either....Steve S

"Your dog learns as much by doing his work right,by your praise and encouragement, as he does by your displeasure and correction." DLWalters

Participation is a privilege, not a right.
The banished were sent off for their refusal to honor the privilege.
The janitor offered the banished multiple opportunities to change their behavior.
They did not, and they suffered the consequences.

There was a poll on this issue and the members of RTF voted by a margin of over 2 to 1 in favor of not having the banished return.
However, it seems that some are unwilling to accept by the decision of the janitor and the desires of the majority.

Technically we have over 5k users and only a few hundred votes on that thread. That's roughly only 4% of the rtf population that voted. Therefore you can't really say "the members" are in favor of doing anything. Course you may just be getting conditioned to in your state. How you coming on turning in your guns and learning to smoke pot?